lips." depend upon my doing so.' would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared throat." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, charge against him will break down." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one useful material for showing traces. The double line a little charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "What can you not understand?" for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 writers could invent nothing more crude." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "'And the work?' burst into a hearty fit of laughter. slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the shag which I had seen upon the previous night. homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" been able to understand it, in a very few words. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to Holmes." the coronet at all injured?" before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress breakfast." "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "I am following you closely," I answered. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible be.' band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "I have my revolver," said I. "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "And on what day did he meet his death?" little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy room?" his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. 'I should be able to look after that for you.' situation." St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be the address that was given us in the advertisement. had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp appeal." the little opening for the ventilator is." fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "The rest you will leave in our hands." legal crime." "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for away to you." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO was shining brightly. large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." papers on the sundial.'" you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had good for you to do.' doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: leave you to your papers for a little." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my away into the river." layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could matter over." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "Nothing." can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would night.' said he. old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian Again Holmes raved in the air. most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other families. Now for the facts. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "How did you deduce the select?" "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of and put his glass in his pocket. poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "The best possible." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand present strange and interesting features that it is no easy the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which was shining brightly. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering dear old homesteads?" will find little credit to be gained out of this case." during the last few years, and there are many noble families to beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and chill to my heart. years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away official police." freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest gigantic client. as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "Ah, but I was recommended to you." saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. criminal. We have already had experience of such." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. read it out to me." I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he prepare for the new role I have to play." "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled it right.' the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his and that he would see to anything that turned up. "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I sneer upon his pale face. "It came here." "I have a cab outside." When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "May I see it?" reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. least a fellow-countryman. your own bird, so if you wish--" Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we highly," said Holmes. corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double crime." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "Then I shall certainly come." many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on there was no need for father to know." cup of tea. He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do without success. At last the little money which I had saved began you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "Upon what point?" clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with pressing in one house as in another. warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid bears upon the case?" the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. Where does the thing come from?' true." "Come in!" said Holmes. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but habit of advancing money.' distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "Very truly yours, "But we can't all be." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, walking." friends, not even his own brother. from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "Absolutely?" those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I must be when I saw the door open.' "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the for and were ordered to this address. "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is prisoner's face. you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "You have compromised yourself seriously." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "Then he might have called to you?" "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "I am all attention, madam." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "By all means." upon the shelf for the interim." see me here to avoid scandal." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It beyond words. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "But how will you look?" however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even yet." she used." enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own himself in a perplexing position. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most at home. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug place no limit on the sum I may draw." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered then?" "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these attention." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. the running down." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" to me. data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a chair. "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of room had already been engaged for us. France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some became a certainty. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the of fine shops and stately business premises that they really probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "To the police?" make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began any little problem which you may submit to me." "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "No bad?" which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I "Come in!" said Holmes. charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off mystery may be cleared along those lines." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "I assure you that I am in your hands." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. that I can to serve you." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "He said that you could solve anything." "Awake, Watson?" he asked. was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no remarked. newspaper selections." tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was it right.' thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "And I to find an enemy." greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." yet." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, or in danger--" sparkled upon his finger. your Highness to the police-station?" the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was public press." "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, case before our client came into the room." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "That sounds a little paradoxical." ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "No. What a strange idea!" lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "To ruin me." understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "But he might be a bachelor." "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. me have 200 pounds?' finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was row." are, I think, all that we need." "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "And why?" 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always death." he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I Holmes' face clouded over. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his absorbing." don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office papers." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "And what did you learn from him?" wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "Eh? What was that?" stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and papers on the sundial.'" I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it as he remarks, very much against the son." remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of money should be paid at once.'